Droplets Of Chocolate
by Yummei of the Dream
Summary: A drabbleficlet collection, featuring all the couples and characters I've ever supported. Drabble 5: Kunoichi. Drabble 6: Brainfrying family Curse Seals? Shark swordsmen and spider archers? Evil clones? Ha! They have nothing on Neji's girlfriend. NejiTen.
1. Sasuke, Sakura: Yes, Maybe, No

**Droplets Of Chocolate: A Drabble Collection**

**By: Yummei-sama no Hayashi**

* * *

**Author's Note: **Welcome to "Droplets Of Chocolate." This is my brainchild when one day I was re-reading the chapters of **Renalin's **_**Naruto For The Teenage Soul**_ (read it – it's good good stuff) and I thought… why not make I own? 

In this collection, I will be making drabbles for some of the canon, almost-canon, and crack Naruto pairings I've ever liked, or even just character ficlets. I might even take requests. A note of warning though – it's in the Sakura and Sasuke filter because they will still be featured heavily, but there will be pairings that actually contradict it.

**Disclaimer: **This goes for all the chapters proceeding – I don't own squat.

* * *

**Sasuke and Sakura:**

**Yes, Maybe, No**

**Genre: Angst/Drama**

* * *

The shark-like Akatsuki picks his half-dead partner up, while said partner's little brother holds his accidental medic in his arms, on the other side of the battlefield. "Sorry, Itachi-san's little brother," Kisame drawls, shark teeth glinting, "but Leader wants him alive for a little longer." 

"Wait-!" Sasuke exclaims, but his vehement exclamation is a moment too late – they disappear in a flurry of crows.

The avenger's veins throb and pulse in rage and disappointment – never in his life has he gotten so close to his goal, and to have it unreachable again, at least for the time being, is unbearable. The pink-haired girl in his arms gives him a soft, anxious gaze. "Sasuke-kun…" she murmurs, if only to fill the heavy silence.

"How're your injuries?" Sasuke asks abruptly, startling Sakura.

"I'll… be okay," she says, trying to sound as if she will be, though his loss stabs her every nerve ending. "I expended most of my chakra healing you while you fought, but I should heal all right."

"Good," Sasuke says shortly, re-sheathing his sword, as though the huge loss had not happened. Sakura knows he feels it, though she cannot see his darkened expression. "I don't want to deal with unnecessary deaths."

Sakura's hand reaches out to touch his shoulder, and he does not shrug it away. "I'm sure… next time…" she begins gently, not knowing how to word it. What exactly does one say after a failed attempt at a revenge one disapproves of?

"Next time…" Sasuke repeats in a mutter, mulling over the possibilities.

The two sit in silence, but soon enough, the bubble begins dissolving – Sakura knows her blond brother-in-spirit and their other comrades are on their way for her, while Sasuke can feel his subordinates approaching.

Sakura has to try, one last time, before he leaves again.

"Sasuke-kun… won't you come home with us, please?"

He avoids her imploring jade eyes, for the same reason he had his back turned on her the last time he avoided saying goodbye – those eyes have the ability to break his resolve.

"No."

Sakura gives a shuddering sigh, but this is merely to steady herself. The battle is not over. But the tears are coming on. "Then… after this revenge… will you come home?"

It takes Sasuke longer to respond. "…maybe."

The weakened kunoichi looks up, hope renewed in those eyes he cannot look at. She has one last push left, and she believes the third time might be the charm.

"Then…" she says slowly, "when you've finished with your revenge, will you let us – me – drag you home?"

A long silence, then-

"Sasuke!"

Both of them look up – the bespectacled redhead of Sasuke's team has come rushing towards them. "We have to hurry!" Karin says urgently. "Konoha nins are on our trail and-"

She stops abruptly, staring at Sakura. Her eyes narrow. "You-!"

But Sasuke has started walking away from Sakura, joining his subordinates (_but never friends_, Sakura tries to believe). "Let's go, Karin."

"But she-!" Karin protests.

"Drop it," the blue-haired swordsman says impatiently, eyeing Sasuke with caution. The kunoichi glares at him, but says nothing more as Sasuke rejoins their group.

"Sasuke-kun…?" Sakura tries again, voice breaking.

Sasuke pauses.

"…"

Moments later, Naruto finds Sakura, eyes filled with tearful emotion.

"_If you want it so badly._"

It feels better than yes, strangely.

-

-

-

-

-

-

:.: _there are always gray areas _:.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **If I feel like continuing this as a collection, then I'm posting a Minato/Kushina next. Don't know who they are? Read the most recent chapters of the Naruto manga. They are easily the most fun-to-write characters, so far. 

Reviews are cookies, and I'm Cookie Monster.


	2. Minato, Kushina: Veneration

**Droplets Of Chocolate: A Drabble Collection**

**By: Yummei-sama no Hayashi**

* * *

**Author's Note: **Second serving of chocolate, everyone. Hope everyone enjoys – I loved writing it. It's still a bit on the drama side, but I might get to working on some crack next. Not taking requests yet – maybe after the fifth chapter. 

Oh, and if you're not up-to-date with the manga, then you might not be able to understand this chapter, or even know who the characters are. They're canon, though – drabbles are not meant for OCs. Especially serious drabbles.

* * *

**Minato and Kushin**a:

**Veneration**

**Genre: Drama**

* * *

"You're not as happy as I thought you'd be," Kushina said softly, crestfallen. 

"I am," Minato said, trying his best to sound as happy as he was lying he was. "I'm more overjoyed than it might look like. It's just…"

Kushina's smile was sad and bitter, if unintentionally. "It's just that no one would expect the great Yondaime Hokage, prodigy and genius, to knock up some foreign kunoichi. Yeah – it might look bad on his résumé, wouldn't it, having a child out of wedlock-"

"Kucchan-" (Kushina shook her head at Minato's attempt at her pet name – now was a _very_ inappropriate time) "-you and I both know that's not it," Minato said, sounding restrained. "Things are just… complicated as it is."

"Then what is it?" Kushina demanded, brown eyes flaring in anger and frustration. "If you're not ashamed of us, and of our child, then what is keeping you from being happy about this?"

Minato wrenched his dark blue gaze from Kushina's sienna ones. How would he tell her? How would he tell the girl – no, woman – he loved that the family they wanted and were starting to have was not meant to be?

Would he survive the pain he was certain she would feel?

"Minato…" Kushina prompted gently, changing tact. Charging like a raging bull did no good in getting things out of her blond love; it was best to be soft. She wondered in the back of her mind if he would be better off with a softer woman.

(_No he wouldn't, dammit_, she thought fiercely. _I'd beat that softer woman up before she can simper all over him. Besides, I've learned to be softer because of him-_)

The truth is, Kushina-" (_Finally, he decides to be serious_, the redhead thought) "-oh man." Minato sighed, hesitating.

"Yes?" Kushina gazed at him questioningly.

"I…" Minato swallowed, and tried again. "I've always wanted to protect you from the atrocity of this jutsu, but I guess we're all going to be in the middle of it, now that this has happened."

"What does any jutsu have to do with starting a family?" Kushina asked, her impatience rising again. "What is so bad that you would beat around the bush?"

Her eyes glazed over with worry when Minato did not respond, his blue orbs not as expressive as they ought to be. "What's wrong?" the Whirlpool kunoichi asked apprehensively.

"You know what we're fighting against – why your village has allied itself with us," Minato began, looking her straight in the eye.

"The… Kyuubi," Kushina replied, still looking puzzled.

Minato nodded. "I didn't tell you about it for as long as I could, but I…" He sighed again, bracing himself. "I've created a jutsu that might be able to stop it. In fact, this jutsu has a 9 to 10 chance of working on the Kyuubi."

"But that's great news!" Kushina exclaimed, now utterly confused on what to feel. "What's wrong with using it?"

Minato was silent.

Kushina's brow furrowed, then raised as she realized what it might mean. She knew Minato and his conscience, nearly inappropriate for a ninja, too well. "It requires a sacrifice, doesn't it?" Cerulean eyes were downcast, and Kushina's face started to take on a horrified expression. "It requires… a newborn baby's sacrifice?" Her hands spread protectively on her abdomen. "Minato! You can't be thinking-"

"I don't _want _to," Minato insisted, more wild-eyed than Kushina had ever seen him. "But the elders – they'd want me to, if they find out. And they _will,_ I know. They'd expect me to do that to no other child but my own."

"But why the hell do you have to listen to those old geezers, anyway?!" Kushina asked furiously, her chest heaving. "Why does it have to be our child? Why can't it be-"

"-any other child?" Minato asked coldly. Kushina bit her lip. "Would you really wish that for any other mother?"

"No!" Kushina exclaimed, her doe eyes filling with unshed tears. She wiped them away violently. "I don't want that for _anyone_! But Minato… my child… _our_ child…" She whimpered, and, unable to take the emotion, began crying in earnest, resting her head on Minato's chest.

"The child doesn't have to die," he mumbled, holding Kushina's shoulders and not knowing whether it was to support her, or himself. "It just requires for the dark chakra of the Kyuubi to be sealed in the child. But to have him endure the hatred of the village, even if he lives-"

"Hatred?" Kushina raised her head. "Why would they hate the child?"

"Everyone hates the Kyuubi," Minato said. "Naturally, if the villagers learn that it's been sealed in the child, they'd think the child _is_ the Kyuubi, or the human incarnation of it."

"They wouldn't!" Kushina cried, unbelieving.

Minato shook his head. "That's naïve thinking, koi," he said, smiling sadly. "Not everyone can be so accepting like you."

Kushina's face was crumpled in disgust and sadness. "Why would they scorn a hero?" she asked softly. "Minato, think about it. Doing this – it will save the village. Our child and your jutsu could save everyone. If the child does not die, then I approve of it. Our child would be a hero before he'd even know his own name!" She valiantly attempted to grin. "It's only fitting for the greatest wife of a Hokage in Konoha's history to bear a hero, is it not? Wait – Minato, we _are_ getting married, right?"

Minato laughed through the uneasiness and frustration he felt. Hearing Kushina make light of their situation was comforting, in a way – she was still the woman he fell in love with. "I wonder if the village will see it that way."

"They will," Kushina said confidently. "It's all in the advertisement, anata. It's our job as his parents and your job as Hokage to tell the villagers that our child is _not _the monster they fear. Sealing that kind of power in him – it'll make him great. It's a mother's instinct, I'm telling you." Minato smiled softly, and, as Kushina noted, sadly.

The she seemed to understand a bit more of what he wasn't letting on. "It doesn't just affect our child, now does it? It'll… involve me, too, won't it?"

Minato gritted his teeth, willing himself not to fall apart. His grasp around Kushina's shoulders tightened.

"Ah," Kushina said with a calm smile, though her tears were running down her cheeks again. "It involves taking my life too."

"Don't smile about it!" Minato said angrily. "Do you think I'd be able to endure it if you-" He swallowed and began once more. "Kushina – I don't want to do this. I don't want to take your life… and ruin our child's life. I curse the day I discovered how to work this jutsu."

Kushina wrapped her arms around Minato's shaking body. "Minato… oh Minato…" she murmured. "I don't want to die, either, but if it's for the sake of the people we love – for the village I've come to love… I'm ready."

"Don't say that… don't say that as if it were easy…"

"We have nine months to enjoy with each other," Kushina said in the same soothing voice. "Until the end of those nine months, promise me you'll keep smiling for me, all right?"

Minato stared into the shining face of the only girl he knew he would love. He sometimes could not tell who he loved more – the village, or this crazy, hyperactive, orange-clad girl who was so good at pranks and making people happy and annoyed at the same time.

"As long as everyone is happy, and our child is venerated as a hero, I'll be all right with my lot in life," Kushina said softly, burying her face in his shirt. "And don't cry, you idiot – it's pathetic."

"You're the idiot," Minato replied, taking in her scent, his eyes closed. "I'll cry if I want."

"Hmmm. Maybe that's why I love my Mina-chan so much."

Nine months later, a new hero was born, and the old hero was there to greet his love in heaven.

-

-

-

-

-

:.: _veneration__without understanding is empty_ :.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **I am absolutely _fascinated_ with Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato – Naruto's parents. It helps that I have loved the Yondaime the second I discovered how he looked like. I've always wondered what sort of person Naruto's mom would be, though. It fascinated Tenshi-chan and I – in her words, we often wondered who was the lucky woman who got to be the wife of the greatest Hokage and the mother of the future greatest Hokage. 

Anyway, this was uploaded for Naruto's birthday, October 10. This is, after all, my take on his origin.

Any commentary would be appreciated.


	3. Naruto, Hinata: 13 Nontruths

**Droplets Of Chocolate: A Drabble Collection**

**By: Yummei-sama no Hayashi**

**Author's Note: **I was sitting bored in Math class when this concept came to me. I thought it was cute, so I went for it. I know that I said I was going to make some crack, but I guess I'm not ready for the big kid stuff yet.

* * *

**Naruto**** and Hinata:**

**13 Non-Truths**

**Genre: Character Sketch/Drama**

* * *

_i. Hinata is not loud._

Tenten scolds and vents furiously. Ino giggles and gossips like lightning. Temari curses like a sailor during annoyances. Sakura yells greetings and admonitions and happiness and pretty much everything else.

Hinata fades into the background of these loud noises.

He challenges his best friend loudly, and she sighs, half-exasperatedly, half-amusedly. He yells at her beloved cousin, and she gives him a gentle warning. He plays pranks, does animal imitations, slurps down his ramen at top speed, and she giggles softly while everyone is shouting at him.

(_Her giggles are all that he hears, strangely._)

He faces an enemy of the village with her, and she exhales, steadying herself for the bloodshed. He growls in anger, red chakra pouring out, and she keeps quiet, trusting him to regain control. He shrieks as he begins to lose to the monster within him, and her whimper and terrified whisper of his name pulls him back, giving him will to hold on, even for a bit longer.

(_Her voice is enough, oddly._)

* * *

_ii. Hinata is not rough._

The Hyuuga are said to be the best of the best, their techniques enough to bring down the strongest nins.

Hanabi's grey-white eyes are cold and harsh to most strangers. Neji's hands are heavy and startling when he touches. Hiashi's criticism is the most abrasive of any words that anyone may encounter.

Hinata is like angel's breath.

Her lavender-white eyes are gentle and kind (_you wouldn't even think she's a kunoichi_)-

-hands are soft and smooth and fragile (_until she busts out her Shugohakke – that's Hinata!_)-

-words are soothing, calming (_it makes me rest easy_)-

-and her softness is the type that he craves after the coarse road he travels every day.

* * *

_iii. Hinata is not graceful._

The techniques Hinata uses require great flexibility and fluidity. Her upbringing has trained her to glide not stride, roll not snap, chew not gnaw. And she has perfected that.

Until he's there.

He does not understand why she stutters, why she trips, why she fumbles and twiddles and hyperventilates. Does she hate his presence? Does she feel uncomfortable being around him?

Because if that is the case, then he does not want to be around her, either.

(But only because he does not want to see her disliking him.)

* * *

_iv. Hinata is not weak._

He hears people whisper pointedly when Hinata passes by.

(_There's the Hyuuga heiress. Pretty girl, that one is. But I heard she was still a Chuunin. Oh my, how disgraceful! Her cousin of nearly the same age from the Branch House is already a Jounin, isn't he? What's wrong with her? Maybe she inherited the wrong genes? I heard she almost died fighting her cousin. They should have traded places in the family._)

He wants to shut them up, tell them they are wrong, and just _make_ them shut up because, _dammit_, they were still talking.

(It does not help that he's heard them whisper about him too.)

But he does not need to, when Neji passes by with his teammates, congratulating her about a recent B-class solo mission well done. She merely blushes, ducks her head, and thanks them.

He is smug – _that_ shut the gossipers up.

Then he is amazed that even _he_ did not expect anything that big for her.

* * *

_v. Hinata is not shy._

At least, not when she is preoccupied with something other than him.

He sees her laughing at the jokes Kiba makes, being in a deep conversation with Shino, greeting Ino merrily when she passes by the flower shop, smiling at Shikamaru and Chouji when they greet her in the street, shopping with Tenten in the market, welcoming Lee into their complex, training with Neji, trading gossip with Sakura.

She meets all their eyes, he notes.

She destroys the split-second connection her pearly orbs and his sapphire pools make each time, he adds to himself, a pang in his chest.

He wishes she wouldn't.

* * *

_vi. Hinata is not always kind._

Sometimes, he wonders if he would ever see her eyes turn fierce like her fight with Neji, but they have never been fiercer since that time.

(_Those determined burning hard strong eyes – they stirred something inspiring in him._)

Then they encounter the Akatsuki.

A Kage Bunshin he makes watches her fight in the distance as the real him battles it out, and the Bunshin's mouth drops at the sight of her – hair askew, teeth gritted,

(_Whoa, Hinata._)

and eyes looking as though they would be able to burn a hole into the Samehada.

_They're even scarier than when she fought with Neji-_

The Kage Bunshin is hit and dissipates, and the thought registers into him. He is torn between shuddering (why wasn't Kisame running for his life at that _look_?) and puffing up in pride (he finally saw it, after all those years).

* * *

_vii. Hinata is not spoiled._

He has lived in a cramped and messy apartment for all of his life, and when he comes back from the hospital (Sakura had insisted that he _rest, dammit, or I will take away your ability to procreate do you hear me?!_), he is shocked to find the two-room apartment spotless, save for the note that is tucked under a small vase with a single lily blossom.

_Cleaned your apartment, Naruto-kun_, it reads. _I hope you find it to your liking. Please get well soon!_

He does not know who it is, at first, because hardly anyone does this. But it happens many times after, especially after long missions, to his amazement.

Then, one day, he finds a single strand of long blue-black hair on his bed, and he does not know what to think.

* * *

_viii. Hinata is not boring._

It was a common misconception of most to think that Hinata was not an interesting speaker, being a quiet person, he notes. It was _his_ misconception for a long time, but only because he talks about himself too much.

She sits with him, at times, in the Ichiraku, and because of the increasing frequency and growing lack of anything to say about himself, he asks about her.

She does not open up, at first.

Then she begins speaking, nearly inaudible at first, then in the next few times, her voice becomes stronger, a change he welcomes.

She talks, and he listens with ever-growing fondness. He loves her ideas, her stories, her advice.

And maybe something else, as well.

She is wiser than most would expect, he concludes.

* * *

_ix. Hinata is not fond of crying._

He imagines her going through hardships he had not known she experienced till she tells him one time, out of her own volition. He thinks she will break down and cry, but she merely gives a long, slow sigh as she recounts the details of her childhood, nearly as dark as his.

Perhaps, he realizes, that breaking down and crying had not been a choice for her as she grew up. She had known that crying would leave her condemned and persecuted all the more.

So Hinata does not cry, because it is weakness in the Hyuugas' eyes. She needs her strong façade in the face of her own family.

But he thinks it is okay to cry, sometimes. And he tells her.

She gives him a long look, meeting his cerulean eyes longer than usual.

The she bawls her eyes out. That is the first and last he sees her tears.

* * *

_x. Hinata is not invisible._

Fading into the background – as he had believed till he first talked to her in that exam – seemed to be her area of expertise.

But then he realizes something important: Hinata is anything but invisible to him.

Her quiet presence always seems to be something tangible, even when she is not there. She begins to stand out to him in a crowd. Amid the brightly lit faces of Ino, Tenten, Sakura, and Temari, he can pick out her face like one picks out a white lily from the cluster of brighter flowers.

He does not know nor care why he can do this – all he knows is that he can.

Hinata, he realizes soon enough, is the complete opposite of invisible to him. He can see her form, smell her perfume, hear her breathing, feel her gentleness, taste her words.

He knows that something is there.

* * *

_xi. Hinata is not really very perceptive._

She does not know what she is doing to him, and he would rather that she knows, though he cannot say it. He just wants her to _see_ more than she usually sees.

But he knows now. More than he ever knew anything – he felt something (_everything_) for her.

But she seems not to notice his stares, his treats to ramen, his attempts to get her to open up. He despairs, only finding out that this was, indeed, more painful than how it had been with Sakura.

There are many things that Hinata is _not_, as he has observed. But what he needs her to _be_ – to _be_ with him – seems too much of a fantasy.

(_Dammit. Why can't I?_)

For all the hype about Hyuuga eyes being perceptive, he bitterly thinks, Hinata is doing a poor job of perceiving him from under his façade.

He still hopes.

* * *

_xii. Naruto does not know._

It is hard for her to believe that Naruto has started paying closer attention to her. It is even harder for her to fathom how he could make her flustered but calm at the same time, when before she was always just flustered.

She is happy – though her love is still bound to be unrequited, she thinks, at least she is closer to him than she could have dared to believe.

She talks to him as she normally would as he comes in for ramen, and she wonders, rather vaguely, what would happen if Naruto _did_ hope to be with her.

* * *

_xiii. Naruto and Hinata are not far off._

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

:.: _the __truth sleeps in _:.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **It is 1 in the morning, and I'm burned out. I need to _sleep_. But first I need to get my roommate's butt off my bed. 

Reviews, anyone?


	4. Sasuke, Sakura: Conservative

**Droplets of Chocolate**

**By: Yummei-sama no Hayashi**

**Author's Note: **Wow. You haven't gotten tired of me yet? Lucky me, then.

This next serving is another SasuSaku. I was thinking about it while walking home and it kept sticking to me, begging to be written. So I'm doing the plotbunny a favor by writing it. And it's sorta-kinda-maybe crack. This should be fun.

* * *

**Sasuke**** and Sakura:**

**Conservative**

**Genre: Fluff/Humor**

**Warning: Slight mature themes**

* * *

Sasuke walked into the room he shared with Sakura, feeling tuckered down. After two consecutive A-Class missions, it was no wonder he felt like collapsing on the spot. (But at the very least, his desire to sleep beside his wife was stronger than the want to sleep by the doorway.) 

"I'm home," he said, sighing tiredly, bending over to kiss Sakura on her forehead.

"Welcome home," she chirped happily, smiling up at him from the bed, where she was going over some scrolls. Sasuke eyed the scrolls on her lap.

"Research?" he asked.

"Not really," Sakura replied. "More like light bedtime reading before I go to sleep."

Sasuke glanced at the scrolls again. …_of the family Piperaceae is a common source of… the inflorescence of this certain genus is… the dehiscent fruits of the species being…_

He stopped before he could get a nosebleed from the scientific terms the scroll was riddled with. "_Light_ bedtime reading?" he clarified.

"Just reviewing some terms so my brain won't stagnate," Sakura explained. She blushed at the incredulous look her raven-haired husband was giving her. "What's with the look?"

"You," Sasuke said, poking her forehead, "are weird."

The pink-haired female grinned. "Ah, but that's why you chose me, is it not?"

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, mischief glimmering in his charcoal eyes. "Maybe."

Sakura shoved him off the bed.

"You better get yourself cleaned up," she said as-a-matter-of-factly while her disgruntled love picked himself up. "I won't let you sleep beside me if you don't."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Sakura watched him go into the bathroom, wash his face and brush his teeth, then open his closet. After picking out the loose pants and shirt he wanted to wear for the night, he started removing his shirt, exposing first his chiseled hipbone, then his well-toned stomach, then his smooth chest…

The green-eyed medic began to blush again, but deeper this time, when she realized she had been staring and licking her lips subconsciously. "S-stop!" she stammered, her breath hitching as Sasuke completely removed his shirt and began to unbutton his pants.

"Stop what?" Sasuke asked, completely bewildered.

"That!" Sakura exclaimed. "What you're doing!"

"Dressing up for bed? Why?"

"_Un_dressing!" Sakura yelled, now covering her completely beet-red face with the scroll she had been reading. "Stop undressing in front of me! It's indecent!"

Sasuke look utterly perplexed. "Sakura, I'm your husband! You've seen me naked before! And may I remind you, you've seen me naked just a couple of nights before, and the night before that, and the night before that, _and_ the night before th-"

"Okay, okay!" Sakura exclaimed, still hiding behind the scroll. Sasuke had not moved and was still midway through unbuttoning his pants. "I-I-I get it – we're sexually active! But… just… just! Just stop undressing in front of me! Get into the bathroom, go dress in the hallway, whatever! Just… stop making me see you naked!"

"But _why_the hell, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, now frustrated at the woman's strange behavior. "I won't even be naked – I'll be in my boxers! Geez!"

"Because… because… because…!"

"Because_why_!?"

"Because…" Sakura's voice behind the scroll lowered to an embarrassed whisper. "Because you're kinda hot… and it turns me on."

Sasuke's mouth dropped, as an awkward silence hovered over the couple. Finally, Sasuke gathered his wits again and asked, "And… why is that a bad thing?"

Sakura kept refusing to look at him, choosing instead to press her burning face into the scroll. "Because…" she reasoned, her voice muffled, "we've been doing it so much because _I _can't control myself… and, you know, you're tired out and all… I don't want to stress you out – hey!"

Sasuke had wrenched the scroll from her hand and was now nose to nose with her. "You know what turns _me_on?" he whispered, his voice dark and silky.

"What?" Sakura squeaked, feeling his hot breath heat her face even more, but in a pleasant way.

"What you just said."

Sakura considered dunking her head into a barrel of ice cold water, but thought better of it as Sasuke's lips touched hers. "Besides," the raven-haired male murmured, "I happen to enjoy this kind of tiring out."

The next afternoon, the people who worked in the Hokage's office began wondering why the Hokage could not reach his former teammate and current ANBU commander after forty-three attempts of calling him up on the phone.

-

-

-

-

-

-

:.: _The__subscriber's phone is unattended or out of coverage area. Please try again later. _:.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **I was clearly hot and bothered when I was walking home from school. I wonder why. Maybe long lines during enrollment turn _me_ on. 


	5. Kunoichi: Archetypal

**Droplets Of Chocolate**

**By: Yummei of the Dream**

**Author's Note:** Yes, I changed my name. I find it immature of me to keep using a Japanese name no one even understands. (I mean, if more people understood what "Hayashi" meant it would be fine, I suppose, but… they don't. Not really.) But see, this is why it's funny – Yummei of the Dream translates into "Yume no Yummei." Isn't it cute? I might as well have named myself Yummy Yummei.

But that's not the point. Enjoy this next character sketch.

* * *

**Kunoichi:**

**Archetypal**

**Genre: Character Sketch

* * *

**

_Chrysanthemum: means longevity._

Tsunade has been around for a long time, and has seen many things.

She has seen teams get broken (hers is not the only one – she's determined to teach the girl _so like her_ the strength to smile with her comrades again)-

People losing their loved ones (she visits the beautiful kunoichi Asuma had loved more than anything, and finds her drawing strength from the burden in her womb)-

Wars being fought (it was war when she was born, war when she lost her own loved ones, and war again when she and the village strove to protect the boy who had inherited the will of fire)-

-and people healing their hearts in the company of others.

(She sees the broken avenger pieced together by the two who cared about him the most, the genius and his two best friends taking care of the child he had vowed to be a model to, the war ceasing because the efforts of the very boy they had been trying to protect.)

She thinks, if she were to leave the world soon, while it was peaceful would be a good time.

For then that would mean she would be around for a very, very long time.

* * *

_Thistle: a symbol of both evil and protection._

Karin had been dancing around in the palms of evil for as long as she could remember.

Growing up in Orochimaru's lair taught her sadism, malevolence, and mercilessness. She learned violence, torture, and extracting information alongside her ABCs and basic math. She knew how to manipulate people, do things for her own advantage, and simply do things the way Orochimaru does it.

She had never known it as something "evil" or "immoral" – rather, it was a way of life.

But such an upbringing had instilled other values in her as well.

She knew ferocity. (_Damn that kappa! How dare he!? He's going to get it, one of these days!_)

She knew cleverness. (_Bet that Juugo thought I was only drooling over Sasuke's shirt! It was a plan, you freak!_)

She knew loyalty. (_I would never turn against Sasuke… B-but! I don't like him! I'm just – uh – going along for the ride!_)

Most of all, she knew how to protect the soul that everyone thought was anything but fragile.

(_Bipolar?_ _Who says I'm BIPOLAR!?_)

* * *

_Plum_ _blossom: the flower of perseverance and determination._

When Hinata wants something, she gets it.

It was not that she was manipulative or pushy. She did not coerce (her heart was too pure, no matter how one looked at it) or use her Hyuuga influence (she had gone without it for many years – she could go on without it now, even if it was now granted to her) or call upon her feminine wiles (it was the femme fatale of flowers who was incredible at it, not her).

She did things as cleanly as possible, as fairly as possible, as hard as possible.

(For it was the honest path that was hardest to take.)

She has been whipped around, talked down, compared and beaten and disowned, but she does not let up.

For as long as the sun shone brightly on her, granting her the inspiration to press forward, she continues to bloom.

_Freesia: signifies a spirited and positive attitude._

Political tensions wore on, the Kyuubi destroyed more and more, and war sent everyone's morale spiraling down.

And it would be Kushina who would make everyone smile.

Her village came to ruins, and her optimism made everyone look up from the ground. Her love, downcast and troubled and worn out by the village he struggled to lead, only smiled and threw his cares away when he was with her.

And though she knew she would face death soon, she wore a smile, strong and proud and hopeful that one day, her efforts and dreams for her unborn child would not be in vain.

She was the last of her village, but she was not bitter. She was the wife of a powerful yet burdened man, but she was content. She was the mother of a child who would certainly be hated, but she was _happy._

Because, in her heart of hearts, she knew that her spirit would live on in him, as happy and optimistic as it was.

* * *

_Jasmine: connotes grace and elegance._

There was nothing that Ino couldn't turn into something glamorous and refined.

With her, a simple dress turns into the most stylish couture, a normal walk becomes a sashay down a ramp, and a bland smile blooms into a look full of promises of exciting and silky times ahead.

With her impish smirk, she turns assassination into a mysterious seduction of death. With her long blonde hair, she turns her disheveled look brought upon by battle into something that exudes confidence and beauty. With simple but graceful movements, she turns a bloody battle into a dance of utmost sultriness and poise.

And with her brightness and confidence, she turns a pale, ghostlike girl into a flower that might bloom even more charming than her one day.

Because Ino is beautiful, and her charms are innate, that everything she touches turns beautiful.

* * *

_Aster: symbolizes loyalty._

There were a few times when Konan's trust in Nagato – no, Pein – wavered.

These moments happened when they were on the brink of loss, when she couldn't be sure of her future, with him or not. Sometimes, she took it upon herself to bring them out of this slump.

(Pein was not perfect, and she was the only one who mattered enough to know.)

But while this trust wavered, her loyalty never did.

Because Pein was Nagato, her dearest friend who protected her, who was strong, and would change the world. He had been with her, shielding her for as long as she could remember, and he deserved her loyalty, even if she lost faith in him at times. But it was in this loss of faith that she could gather strength enough to return the favor and protect _him_.

Konan would always be there, supporting Pein, because God needed his guardian angel too.

* * *

_Wisteria: the flower of steadfastness._

Tenten was always surrounded by exceptional and brilliant men.

Gai was the picture of energy, Lee was the image of inspiration and industriousness, and Neji was the epitome of ingenuity. It was hard to shine in the midst of these people.

So she does not go into the foreground with them. She stays in the background, the support to a great weight, complementing their every miscarry. She battled to turn their mistaken aim into a sure hit, she talked to correct their notions in subtlety, she was _there_ to make them perfect.

(_Always always always – we have the perfect teamwork and no one can destroy us-_)

Her dream had been to shine, but she is now more content, making others shine, because she knows, with her loyalty and commitment to them, she makes _all four of them_ an exceptional and brilliant team.

For the clock face would never work without the efficient clockwork behind it.

* * *

_Holly: connotes domestic happiness._

The Uchiha clan, with its politics and idiosyncrasies, was a turbulent world of lies and treachery.

Mikoto could not shield her boys from that, because it was _their_ world.

She had been an extraordinary kunoichi in her day, working to the success of every mission, outstanding even among the Jounin of the time. It was how she caught the interest, and much later, the affection, of the then young leader of the Uchiha clan.

It was how she fell into the world of the dark and mysterious, but powerful clan.

If she was asked now, of how she could have been so brave (and stupid) to let go of her prominence as a Jounin to become the wife of a dangerous man and stay at home to raise potentially dangerous children, she had only one answer.

It was her happiness to provide comfort and shelter to the men (no, boys) who were battered by a dangerous world, to build an oasis in the midst of a harsh desert. Always, always, for as long as her boys needed it.

* * *

_Ginger: means pride._

Temari had the loud, brash forefront of a man (but the quiet, enduring heart of a woman).

Her actions spoke louder than her words, which, more often than not, were brutally honest. She had the arrogance to match her terrible beauty, strong and proud.

But it was not she with whom she was proud of. She herself was not the reason she held her head up high.

Her younger brother was the greatest puppeteer of his generation, and was moving forward to surpass the generation before. And her youngest brother was the Kazekage, who had endured such pain and suffering, and was now starting to open up, letting her (and everyone else) into his lonely desert of a world.

And for that, Temari had a lot to be proud of.

* * *

_Lotus: signifies enlightenment and rebirth._

Sakura had been deluded by silly notions for much of her Academy days.

(_That Naruto!_ _What a stupid boy, an imbecile, good-for-nothing! Oh, Sasuke-kun… so strong and handsome and smart and absolutely perfect…_)

Then she was planted in the midst of chaos, and it brought out the glaring and brutal truth.

(_That Naruto… can be brilliant when no one else expecting it – how surprising! Oh, Sasuke-kun… is this the pain he was hiding under that perfect façade?_)

And in the midst of even harsher conditions, her notion of herself (_weak dependent book-smart unreliable_) was destroyed – and she rose from the mud, blooming gracefully.

(_That Naruto… I can be of use to him too. Oh Sasuke-kun… I'm going to bring him back, just wait and see! HELL YEAH!_)

She had started out, unpolished and superficial, and her more enduring self had blossomed, needing just the harsh, hard, unforgiving, _right_ conditions for it.

She was reborn, more beautiful because of hardship.

-

-

-

-

-

-

:.: _the_ _language of flowers is vast and eloquent_ :.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **I took such a while in making this. And to think I wanted to make this for 5 more kunoichi (Kurenai, Anko, Shizune, Yukie, and Matsuri), but I ended up only making it for 10 of them. Ah, well. I'm not sure if I did a good job, but it certainly cleaned out this plotbunny. 


	6. Neji, Tenten: Crazy Girl 1

**Droplets Of Chocolate**

**By: Yummei of the Dream**

**Author's Note: **Looks like I'm doing fairly well with gathering reviews. I'm liking doing this. It's kind of satisfying to clean out my mind from plot bunnies. Not only is my brain fresh again, but I also get praised for taking out the trash. Ha.

This choccie that you will be enjoying is a NejiTen. I've never had Tenten's personality down pat, but the fillers sort of portrayed her as a bit of a ditz in normal situations (but rather strong-willed in battle) so I'm going with that.

* * *

**Neji, Tenten:**

**Crazy Girl, Part 1**

**Genre: Humor**

* * *

When Tenten became his girlfriend, Hyuuga Neji thought that he knew her well enough.

He was in for a rude awakening.

* * *

One day, Neji tried to be a normal boyfriend and bring Tenten flowers.

He stood on Tenten's doorstep, praying that no one see him, lest _Hyuuga__Neji_ (Hyuuga. HYUUGA! He was a gosh-darn-freaking _HYUUGA!_) be spotted being a romantic. Moments later, the brunette opened the door for him. "Ah, Neji!" she exclaimed, brightening up when she saw him.

"Good evening, Tenten," Neji said, nodding.

"What brings you?"

Neji brought the flowers ought from behind him with a flourish. "I thought of giving you something."

He was secretly pleased that her face showed all levels of shock at the beautiful flowers he had acquired. "This is from… the Hyuuga garden, isn't it?" she asked softly.

"I picked out the best-looking ones," Neji said, and he could not keep a note of pride from his voice.

"You…"

Tenten slapped him upside on the head. "YOU IDIOT!"

"What!?" Neji yelped. "What did I do wrong?!"

"How many flowers had to lose their brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers for this bouquet to be made?!" Tenten exclaimed, waving her arms frantically. "What sort of pain did you cause to these poor flowers that the ones that had to watch are now permanently scarred for life!? Are you planning to take over the world? Because it all starts with being sadistic to flowers!"

"Tenten," Neji said furiously, "it's not that big a-"

"And another thing!" Tenten yelled, and Neji tried _his very best_ not to jump in surprise. "Why can't you be more supportive of my friends?! You picked this out from the Hyuuga garden when you could've easily gone to Ino's flower shop and gotten me some of the nice flowers they have there! Have you no heart? You ought to be ashamed!"

Neji stood there, staring as the door slammed into his face. This caused a neighbor to look and spot him holding a bouquet of flowers, thus scarring said neighbor for life.

Tenten opened the door again.

"If you're going to yell at me again-" Neji began in annoyance.

Tenten glared at him.

Then she grabbed the bouquet from his hands and slammed the door in his face._Again._

Neji could only hope that the next time he saw Tenten, it wouldn't be so traumatic.

(The temple monks almost swore they heard the fire god snicker, somewhere up there.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

:.: _The__language of flowers is vast and – AAAUUUGGHHH!_ :.:

* * *

**Author's Note: **I'm planning to make about four more of this for the heck of it. Tenten being crazy happens to be a very good subject. 


End file.
